Communication Guide

Annotated Bibliography

Baruah, T. D. (2012). “Effectiveness of Social Media as a Tool of Communication and Its

Potential for Technology Enabled Connection: A Micro-Level Study.” International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications. 2 (5). Retrieved from

http://www.ijsrp.org/research_paper_may2012/ijsrp-may-2012-24.pdf.

This article discusses how social media can be utilized to gain feedback in the communication process. With the world in the midst of a social media revolution, it is more than obvious that social media like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Skype, etc. are used extensively for the purpose of communication. One of the most important advantages of the use of social media is the online sharing of knowledge and information among the different groups of people. The study is basically a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the audience’s role in providing feedback and importance of social media as a tool of effective communication. In order to empirically examine the effectiveness of social media, the survey method for collecting social media data was distributed to a sample of social media users. This article works towards both audience-centered communication and feedback criteria for the communications guide.

Hattie, J. and Timperley, H. (2007) “The Power of Feedback.” Review of Educational Research.

77 (1). Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/~mvp19/ETF/Feedback.pdf.

This article explains how feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement, but this impact can be either positive or negative. Its power is frequently mentioned in articles about learning and teaching, but surprisingly few recent studies have systematically investigated its meaning. This article provides a conceptual analysis of feedback and reviews the evidence related to its impact on learning and achievement. This evidence shows that although feedback is among the major influences, the type of feedback and the way it is given can be differentially effective. A model of feedback is then proposed that identifies the particular properties and circumstances that make it effective, and some typically thorny issues are discussed, including the timing of feedback and the effects of positive and negative feedback. This article works towards elaborating on the importance of feedback in the communications guide with regards to organizational communication.

Joshi, P. and Wakslak, C. (2014) “Communicating with the Crowd: Speakers Use Abstract Messages When Addressing Larger Audiences.” Journal of Experimental Psychology:

General. 143 (1). Retrieved from http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xge/143/1/351/.

This article explains how communicators choose to frame their messages based on the composition of their audiences. The authors explain when communicating with a single individual, communicators increasingly describe events and actions in terms of their concrete details. Using different communication tasks and measures of construal, the authors show that speakers communicating with many individuals, compared with one person, describe events more abstractly describe themselves as more trait-like, and use more desirability-related persuasive messages. Furthermore, speakers’ motivation to communicate with their audience moderates their tendency to frame messages based on audience size. This audience-size abstraction effect is eliminated when a large audience is described as homogeneous, suggesting that people use abstract construal strategically in order to connect across a disparate group of individuals. Finally, we show that participants’ experienced fluency in communication is influenced by the match between message abstraction and audience size.

Litt, E. (2012) “Knock, Knock. Who’s There? The Imagined Audience.” Journal of

Broadcasting & Electronic Media. 56 (3). Retrieved from Taylor & Francis Online

Database http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08838151.2012.705195.

This article contributes to the literature by providing a theoretical framework that broadly defines the construct; identifies its significance in contemporary society and the existing tensions between the imagined and actual audiences. In today's world of social media, users must navigate through highly public spaces with potentially large and invisible audiences. This article explains how to center the message to audiences via social media and discusses different methods to continue focusing the messages to audiences using social media. This article works towards elaborating on the importance of audience-centered communication in the communications guide while also explaining how to best adapt communication to meet the audiences various needs utilizing social media.